Hatred: Negative Influence Trait #1 - Walking By Faith Choosing Courage

Good morning everyone! And welcome to the next 9 days of focusing on the traits that give us a negative influence. Today we will be focusing on hatred. I don’t like to dwell on the negative but it’s so easy to convince ourselves that we aren’t “Negative people”. But we all have a sin nature and sometimes negative influence traits sneak in and before we know it our words and actions are impacting many around us with what is hidden in our hearts.

HATRED 101

So when we visited the very first positive influence trait of Love we looked at 1 Corinthians 13 for the definition of Love. Well as I scoured scripture for the definition of Hate a realization hit me….Just like I am taking the reverse of Galatians 5:22-23 for the Negative influences, I can also take the opposites of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

So Let’s flip it!

Hatred is…

impatient
unkind
jealous
boastful
prideful
rude
demands it’s own way
is irritable (cranky)
keeps records of being wronged
rejoices about injustices
doesn’t rejoice when the truth wins out.
gives up
loses faith
never hopeful
doesn’t endure in every circumstance

YIKES AND OUCH!

What I learn

When I look at these something very distinct shows up. I already said that love takes the focus off of ourselves and puts the focus on others BUT when we flip Love to hatred it become GLARINGLY obvious that hatred is all about putting ourselves over other people.

So how do we negatively influence people By BEING SELFISH!!!

And all we have to do is let one tiny little seed of any one of these things in our hearts and as it sprouts and takes root it turns into something greater and more dangerous.

Saul and David

As I have been preparing for these 9 Negative influences I have prayed for examples from the Bible to come Bubbling to the surface. And I have one major one that we will visit many times over the next 9 days and that is Saul and David.

And we will also add in Saul’s son Jonathan. These three are a point of interest to me as I have grown in my walk with God. The reason is because of how the dynamics of their relationships work. And maybe some day I will dive deeper into this subject.

When I really started thinking about David and Saul and I really started asking the questions about what really caused the division between Saul and David I keep coming back to Saul letting jealousy take root in his heart. And from there it really snowballs and anger becomes a big problem.

Isn’t that how hatred really happens.

We let one tiny little speck of any one of those problems listed above take root in our hearts. And before we know it most of them if not all of them creep into our lives.

Looking back at Saul before David ever entered the picture Saul was already having trouble with giving up, losing hope and losing faith, When David found Saul’s camp and saw Goliath making a mockery of the Israelites David was shocked because the Israelites served the one true God who was greater than any other god and Saul wasn’t choosing bravery and confidence it God .

Saul’s heart issues started long before David ever entered the picture. But after Samuel anointed David as future king, Saul’s heart took a dangerous turn. Jealousy and anger and bitterness seeds spouted and before long he was seeking to kill David.

Now I can here you say, “but Mary I’m not gonna murder so and so”. BUT 1 John 3:15 says ” Anyone who hates another brother or sister is a murderer….”

So we need to be very careful about what we harbor in our hearts…Because we know what is in our hearts will be revealed through our speech and actions!

Now it’s your turn

We need to start asking God to reveal any hidden root of hatred we have hidden in our hearts and to help us choose acts of selflessness over selfishness. Stay awake and alert to these emotions and feelings that are planted. We have to be oh so careful! And then when God brings those things to our attention, we need to be willing to change. We need to be willing to learn from our mistakes and then be willing to CHANGE. It’s hard! But if we want to turn our negative influence into a positive influence it is imperative !

I am so glad oyu joined me again today and if you are new WELCOME